Romans 10.9-Acknowledging With One's Mouth Jesus Is Lord Is To Believe With One's Heart That God Raised Him From The Dead Resulting In Salvation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 20, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:9-Acknowledging With One’s Mouth Jesus Is Lord Is To Believe With One’s Heart That God Raised Him From The Dead Resulting In Salvation
Lesson # 338
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
This evening we will note Romans 10:9 and in this verse Paul teaches that if the Jew acknowledges with his mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised him from the dead, then the Jew will receive eternal salvation.
Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
Romans 10:2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”
Romans 10:6, “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down).”
Romans 10:7, “Or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
Romans 10:8, “But what does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart’ -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9 presents the basis for Paul’s statement in verse 8 that the word, i.e. the gospel is always readily accessible and available to the Jew, in his mouth as well as in his heart, namely, the word, i.e. the gospel which brings about faith.
The gospel, which brings about faith in Christ, is readily accessible and available to the Jew “because” if the unsaved Jew acknowledges with his mouth to the Father Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead, then the unsaved Jew will be saved.
“If” is the conditional particle ean (e)avn) (eh-an), which introduces the protasis of a third class condition, which indicates the “certain fulfillment in the future” that the Jew will be saved if he fulfills the condition of acknowledging with his mouth to the Father Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead.
“You confess” is the second person singular aorist active subjunctive form of the verb homologeo (o(mologevw), which means, “to acknowledge” to the Father that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord, which is a word here that denotes His deity.
The question arises, “to whom does the unbeliever have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord in order to be saved?”
Also, is a public affirmation to men required or is this an acknowledgement to oneself or to God?
Some interpret homologeo in Romans 10:9 as a “public affirmation” to men and use Luke 12:8 to support this interpretation but Jesus is speaking to believers in Luke 12:8-9 and in Romans 10:9 he is writing concerning unsaved Jews.
This is clearly indicated since Luke 12:1 reveals that He is addressing His disciples and in Luke 12:4, He calls those whom He addresses “My friends” and in Luke 12:4-7, He teaches those whom He addresses regarding the Father’s care for them.
Luke 12:8-9, “And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”
Acknowledging Jesus before men is not a reference to getting saved since Jesus is teaching those who are already His disciples and thus already saved.
Therefore, those who interpret homologeo in Romans 10:9 as a “public affirmation” to men of the deity of Christ can not use Luke 12:8 as support for this interpretation since in Luke 12:8 our Lord is addressing believers and Romans 10:9 is addressing how unsaved Israelites can get saved.
Now, in John 12:42, John writes that many of the Jewish rulers believed in Jesus but because of the Pharisees they were not acknowledging before the public that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
In John 3, the Lord Jesus Christ makes quite clear to Nicodemus that if he believes in Him that he will receive eternal life and be saved and mentions no public affirmation.
Paul also makes this clear throughout his writings that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone (Romans 3:22, 26, 30; 4:3, 5; 5:1; Galatians 2:16; 3:24, 26; Ephesians 2:8).
Therefore, in Romans 10:9, the verb homologeo refers to the sinner acknowledging to the Father that Jesus is Lord and which acknowledgement is, in and of itself, exercising faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
This is clearly indicated in the Scriptures because as we noted the Scriptures teach that it is through faith alone in Christ alone that one is saved.
It is also indicated in that to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord is the equivalent to having faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the Father’s act of raising His Son Jesus from the dead demonstrated that Jesus was in fact God.
To acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God is to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead since the Father’s act of raising His Son Jesus from the dead demonstrated that Jesus was in fact God and faith alone in Christ is the only way to receive eternal life.
This is clearly indicated by Paul in Romans 1:4 where he teaches that there is a direct connection between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His deity in that the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Son of God.
Thus, when Paul teaches in Romans 10:9 that if the Jew confesses with his mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead he means that to believe in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is in fact, an acknowledgment to the Father that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God.
To acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord is to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is God and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation.
Therefore, in Romans 10:9, Paul is giving only one condition for salvation and not two when he teaches that the sinner must acknowledge with one’s mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
So, we can conclude that homologeo in Romans 10:9 is an acknowledgement to the Father that Jesus is His Son rather than an acknowledgement to men because the Father raised Jesus from the dead to demonstrate that Jesus was His Son.
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“Jesus” is the accusative masculine singular form of the proper name Iesous ( )Ihsou$), which refers to the impeccable human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God-Man and functions as an “object” in an object-complement double accusative construction.
“Lord” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (kuvrio$), which refers to the deity of Christ and functions as a “complement” in an object-complement double accusative construction.
The object-complement double accusative construction is affirming the deity of Jesus of Nazareth and should be translated as “Jesus is Lord” as the NIV rather than “Jesus as Lord” as the NASB.
“And” is the “epexegetical” or “explanatory” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that “explains” the previous statement of acknowledging with one’s mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord.
The previous statement “if you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord” looks at salvation from the perspective of acknowledging the deity of Christ.
The statement to follow “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” looks at salvation from the perspective of believing that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
Therefore, because these two statements speak of one condition and are looking at salvation from two different perspectives, the deity of Christ and His resurrection, the conjunction kai is “explanatory” meaning that it is introducing a statement that “explains” salvation from a different perspective.
“You will be saved” refers to being delivered by God from eternal condemnation as well as the sin nature, personal sins, Satan and his cosmic system since Paul is speaking with reference to unsaved Israel in our present context.
Romans 10:9 teaches that to acknowledge with one’s mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord is the same as believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation.
This passage teaches that to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior is an affirmation of His deity and a belief in His resurrection and that both are essential in order to receive eternal salvation.